Traffic delineators mark traffic lanes on roads and highways, serve as object markers indicating traffic obstacles, such as islands, and serve as aids in traffic flow and control in parking lots and garages. Some prior solutions for traffic delineators such as BOTS DOTS are permanently fixed to the pavement. Additional information may be encoded onto such delineators because they are non-rotatable. One edge facing traffic may be color coded yellow to indicate caution. The opposite edge may be color coded red to indicate WRONG WAY especially on a free way. This color coding is especially important direction to drivers when approaching a temporary deviation of traffic, a specific use for the device taught by this invention.
When a traffic delineator is in use, it is not unusual for it to be struck by a vehicle, so it must be capable of being deflected from its normal upright position. In order to remain functional, the traffic delineator must also be able to absorb the vehicle impact and then return to the unflexed position when the impacting force is removed.
Since conventional tubular traffic delineators are made by extrusion, typically from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), they necessarily must have a uniform wall thickness from top to bottom. Such a traffic delineator has a relatively poor memory for recovering from a flexed position to the unflexed position. To assist in recovery, conventional PVC traffic delineators typically have a higher recovery insert, such as a piece of rubber tubing or fiberglass rod, placed in them. In addition, a conventional PVC traffic delineator can typically undergo only ten bend cycles before breaking or failing to recover from the bend, even when a piece of rubber tubing or fiberglass rod is placed in it to help the delineator recover. Although other plastics have better recovery properties than PVC, such as ployurethane, these plastics are also generally more expensive than PVC. Therefore, it has not heretofore been economically feasible to use plastics with better recovery properties in the manufacture of traffic delineators.
Since traffic delineators are regularly destroyed and must be replaced, they need to employ a mounting system that permits quick, simple replacement. However, the conventional traffic delineator mounting systems are cumbersome or expensive. Many mounting systems employ a multiple-part system of threaded components. For example, Duckett, U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,108, discloses a surface mount delineator that is bolted to a mounting plate. the Duckett delineator is not quickly and simply replaceable in its mount.
What is still needed, therefore, is a durable, high recovery traffic delineator that is economically competitive. A need also exists for a delineator mounting system that allows fast, simple attachment or replacement of a traffic delineator. Further needed, is the ability to convey information to the traffic being controlled, in particular information about which direction to travel along the path being delineated.